Signal amplifying system



Filed sept. 4, '1948 May 27, 1952 E. w.` HOGUE 2,598,259

SIGNAL AMPLIFYING SYSTEM 2 SHEETS-S'EET l May 27, 1952 E. W. `HOGUE SIGNAL AMPLIF'YING SYSTEM Filed Sept. 4, 1948 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 zt f .7

Patented May 27, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEr SIGNAL AMPLIFYING SYSTEM Ephraim W. Hogue, Rochester, N. Y.

Application September 4, 1948, Serial No. 47,810

Claims.

lThis invention relates to a method of and to apparatus for amplifying the power of an electrical signal where this signal is generated by a transducer having a high internal impedance.

In a conventional amplifying system using a transducer of the mentioned type, the voltage expected at the output of the amplifier is a function of the open circuit voltage of the transducer, the gain of the amplifier, the series impedance of the transducer andthe input impedance of the amplifier. However, it has been found that the ratio of amplifier input voltage to transducer open circuit voltage must be substantially independent of the series impedance of the transducer, if all desired frequencies generated by the transducer are to be amplified equally.

The usefulness of a conventional amplifier' employing a transducer of the mentioned type, is proportional to the input impedance of the amplifier, which impedance effectively is connected across the input terminals of the amplifier. In general, the mentioned input impedance, is limited to that value of the maximum grid return resistance for the vacuum tube used in the first stage of the amplifier. Another factor involved in the input impedance of the amplifier is the resistance representing the total insulation surface and volume leakage to ground, from the conductor connecting the transducer to the amplifier input. If this conductor is long and is surrounded by a grounded shield providing a large leakage area, great care must -be taken to keep the surface and volume resistivity of the insulation surrounding it, at a high value. This surface and volume leakage constitutes an impedance which shunts the transducer terminals and places an upper limit, in conventional methods, to the impedance which can bepresented to the transducer.

If the input impedance ofthe amplifier is not to be limited by the grid return resistance, additional resistance may be inserted in series between the transducer and the grid of the first vacuum tube of the amplifier. But this attenuates the transducerV signal so that the amplification effected by the amplier must be increased to make up for it. However, the amplification may not be increased indefinitely since this would increase the sensitivity of the amplifier to foreign noises such as microphony and magnetic pick-up.

A further limitation on the effectiveness of the conventional arrangement, results from the presence of stray capacitance from the grid and grid conductors, to ground. 'Ihis capacitance shunts the transducer so that a material reduction in 2 transducer output will result if the capacitance of the transducer is not kept large with respect to it. The use of grounded electrostatic shielding around the conductors leading from the grid increases this capacitance, thereby limiting the usefulness of the prior arrangement.

In accordance with one feature of the present invention, there is provided a novel method and novel apparatus whereby the power output of a transducer having a high internal impedance, can be amplified without encountering the mentioned objectionable limitations of the prior art.

In accordance with another feature of the invention, the electrical signal from a transducer is applied to a suitable load or utilization circuit in which a voltage amplifier is employed in such a manner as to increase the effective impedance presented to the transducer to a value greater than the normal input impedance of said amplifier.

In accordance with another feature of the invention, grounded electrical shielding is employed not only to lower the sensitivity of the amplifier to interfering electrical fields but also to increase the effective impedance presented to the transducer.

A further feature of the invention relates to an arrangement wherein even an imperfect degree of shielding is effective in reducing the sensitivity to interfering electrostatic fields by an amount substantially greater than the same degree of shielding inv conventional amplifiers.

Still another feature of the invention relates to an amplifying system in which one terminal of a transducer of the mentioned type is connected to the input terminal of said amplifier while the other terminal of the transducer is connected to the output terminal of the amplifier so that the transducer and the amplifier input as well as the loaded amplifier output form a series circuit.

Another feature of the invention relates to arranging the characteristic of a voltage ampler so that the amplifying action will reduce the current which is generated by the transducer voltage in said series circuit. In other words, the arrangement provides negative voltage feedback (the output and input voltages of the amplier being in opposite phase) to provide impedance multiplying action. f

The invention will best be understood from the following description and claims when taken with the drawings in which:

Fig. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a circuit arrangement wherein` a highV impedance transducer is coupled by an amplifier to a utilization network or load in such a manner that the input impedance is effectively multiplied, and wherein a grounded electrostatic shield is employed to remove the limiting effect placed by leakage on the impedance which can be presented to the transducer;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic showing of a modified circuit arrangement similar to that of Fig. 1, except thatthe transducer is polarized in a different manner;

Fig. 3 shows a modiiied circuit arrangement in which the invention is applied to a multi-stage amplifier;

Figs. 4 to 8 are diagrams useful in explaining the invention; and

Fig. 9 is a generalized diagram of the-invention showing how electrostatic shielding is employed.

In the form of the invention illustrated in Fig. l, there is discl-osed a condenser type transducer 5, a primary amplifier E, a voltage ampliiier 1, a power stagel I34 and a loud speaker 9, coupled together in the order named. The transducer 5 comprises ai fixed metal plate I2' mounted in insulated, spaced' relationwith a movable metal plate I3, the plate I3"v being arranged for movement-by mechanical vibrations,l sound waves or by a phonograph needle. rlhe transducer is preferably of the polarized type having a D. C. sourcesuclrasv` a vbattery'Iil connected through the resistor'fIif'to thetrans'ducer plate I3 to maintain a charge thereon. The other transducer plate I2 is connected to the grid I4 of a pentode i5`inthe amplifier 6"; The grid Mis connected through the input terminal c which is connectednthroughthe grid resistor I6, the source of gridliias` If'I,land terminal b of the amplifier, to the cathode- IBof-the pentode. The anode IS of the pent'odel i'sconnected through the output terminalc ofthe amplifier, anode load resistor 2G, amplifier anode voltage supply 2l, and the groundedcommonterminal b of the amplier, to the cathode |85 Screen grid-`22- is connected through the-resistor 24-t0 the positive terminal of the' anodevoltage supply-thereby maintaining the screen grid at )the .proper operating potential It will be understood that the by--passing condenser 2-5 serves tomaintainthe screen grid at groundpotential with* respect to alternating current, while the suppressorfgrid26 A is .connected directly to* ground A blocking condenser 28 connectsthe a-nodeISJlof the pentode'to the plate i3 ofthe transducer while the-resistor Il serves to prevent-the signal on-'the anode IS'of amplmer pentode tube" frombeingl short-'circuited to ground,- througlilthe polarizing supplyl I D. A load L which-can be theinputof the voltage amplifier l is connected across-ther terminals "b and "c of the primary ampliiier. This voltage ampliiier is coupled toV` a power stage 8 which in turn is coupledto a loudspeaker 9: Grounded electrostatic shieldingS (represented. byparallel broken lines) is placed around transducer leads,` and portions oftheV circuits'V connected to them to reduce direct leakagebetweensaid leads, and to shield againstA noise pickup.

Any transducerl T `can\be described electrically as a zero-impedance" generator or source of electromotive force erin vseries with an impedance Zt. which is the equivalent' series internal impedance of the transducerY (Fig. 4). Before the signal from the transducer can be utilized, it'

must be developed across some finite load Z1 (Fig. 5), whichisthe inputimpedanceofwhat't ev'erdevice L is:v connected; to1 the transducer:-

Thus the voltage delivered by the transducer to the load will always be less than er, and will depend upon the three quantities et, Ze, (the impedance of the transducer), and Z1 (the input impedance), which impedances are not necessarily constant. In the use of transducers, it is nearly always desirable that the voltage delivered to the load be as large as possible and be dependent only upon et. ThisVv will always/be the case if Z1 is largecompared with Ze. But it is quite often true in practice that the impedance ofthe transducer is considerably higher than that of the load. It then becomes necessary to employ some intermediate device between the transducerv and load to prevent the proper high impedance to the transducer, and to transmit thesignal undiminished, undistorted, and without the introduction of noise, to the lower impedance load.

To eiect the highly desired signal transmission just referred to, there are provided-in accordance with the invention, two arrangements Which-'co5 operate withA each othery and v withl thel transducer and load. Thesearrangeme'ntscomprisez (a) a` three-terminal4 electrical amplier as: in

Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7', 8', andl9`having acertaintransfer characteristic, and

(b) agrounded.system'I of conducting electrostatic shielding Figs. l,- 2,= 3. 8i and,l 9.

The amplifier, represented by its equiva-lent-1 circuit-in Fig. 6, has an input: terminalI a-. an!

output termina1lc, and a; grounded-terminal b to be called' henceforth the commonte minal, common to` both` its input" circuit andv its output circuit, and-an input impedance Z1- existing between terminals a andUb-J sourceA of electromotive force.: E0; existingi between the output terminals b and c andactingiinseries with the output impedanceZo, develops. avolta'ge E2 across a loadv connected to .b andc when a voltage E1 is impressed across Z1. Voltage-Ea is to be taken as greaterftliani voltageiEn andofrv opposite phase;

The system of Aconductive shielding; s'tob'e' ay system of conductors:maintainedatl ground potential and' so'arranged as invsomedegreel to." exclude electrostatic fields from certain portions" of the-circuit.

Let it bev assumedth'at loadL is-connectedto4 the output terminalsbi. c andi thetran'sduce'r:

T is connected'tovthe' inputy terminali and1 the output terminal c or theamplifiers` Islet'.` it further be vassumedithatrtheftransfer charac-` teristicv of saidv amplifier'` when'V sou connected: arranged such-thaty where M, the gain ofthe amplifier isy a: reall.

positive number greater thanonaand-wherelthe minus sign indicates vthat thereisfto be afpha'se` reversal introduced by? the'y amplifier. Then I it. will be found" that as.aresult.off1l)0'%' feedback` across the load. theimpedance seen by. the trans-v ever stray impedance Z'slia'ppenslto err-ist directly;`

put and input oi'the'v amplifierthroughftlie It is seen that (M-l-DZi, the impedance presented by the amplifier to the transducer depends upon an actual physical impedance Zi called the normal input impedance of the amplifier and upon M, the gain of the amplifier. Thus while Z1 may be limited by practical considerations to a moderate value, the product (M-i-DZi can be made many times the value of Zi. After Z1 has been made as large as is practical, the limit on how large (M+1 Zi can be made depends on how large M can be made practically. Without the presence of inverse feedback, the practicable gain of the amplifier would ordinarily depend on the magnitude of noise sources existing Within it, since the effects of these noises in the output would increase directly with M. But if there is inverse feedback of an amount present, the gain M of the present circuit with inverse feedback present, to these noise sources is given by It will be seen from the foregoing, that as M approaches infinity, M approaches l/, so that these noise sources do not seriously limit M when inverse feedback is present. Now as has been pointed out, there is inverse feedback between the output and input of the amplifier through the transducer itself, and the amount of this feedback depends on the ratio of Z1 to Zt. Thus the sensitivity of the circuit described, to ampliiier noises, is limited not by M but is determined instead by the ratio of Zi to Zn. In practice, however, M may be increased only until it becomes impossible to eliminate positive feedback through the transducer suflicient Yto cause oscillation. This positive feedback results from phase shift within the amplifier.

As has been pointed out, the impedance seen by the transducer will be (M+1)Zi in parallel with ZS which represents the direct stray coupling between the transducer leads and portions of the amplifier connected to these leads. Thus, there is no point to making (M-l-DZi much greater than ZS, because the impedance of Z5 and (M-i-DZi in parallel therewith can not be made larger than ZS no matter how large (M-l-l) Z1 is made (see Fig. 7).

This leads to one of the functions of the second mentioned arrangement employed in accoml plishing the kind of signal transmission desired, namely, the single grounded system of conductive electrostatic shielding. From comparison of Fig. 8 with Fig. '7 it will be seen how a single system of conductive shielding will, when connected to terminal ground and arranged in space so as to intercept electric field and current paths which run directly between a and c, effectively convert ZS, the direct stray shunt impedance across the transducer into two impedances ZS' and ZS" which are stray shunt impedances across the input and output of the amplifier respectively. Thus by increasing the degree of this shielding, thus cutting more field and current paths, ZS can be made as large as desired and does not, therefore, set an upper limit on the impedance seen by the transducer.

The impedances ZS and Zs" have the following effect on the impedance presented to the transducer. ZS' which is the same order of magnitude as ZS shunts Z1, but Z1 will in practice be much smaller than (M4-D21 since M will ordinarily be large, so that ZS' will have a much smaller effect on the impedance seen by the transducer than did ZS. Otherwise expressed,

ZS' now becomes a shunt of Z1, reducingit very slightly (if M is large) to a value Zi', thus the impedance presented the transducer will now be (M-l-1)Zi which is smaller than its original value (M-i-l) Zi in the same proportion as Zi is smaller than Zi. But the impedance presented to the transducer can always be brought back to its former value (M-f-DZi simply by increasing M slightly to a value M sothat It is an important feature of the present invention that due to the use of grounded shielding in this manner, the impedance presented to the transducer can always be adjusted to any desired value regardless of the value of ZS', simply by adjusting M. This result cannot be achieved without the use of the grounded electrostatic shield because without the shield, ZS then sets an upper limit on the impedance seen by the transducer regardless of the value of M or of any other quantity.

With respect to ZS which shunts the output of the amplifier, the output impedance of the amplifier can easily be made so low, in practice, that ZS" can be neglected.

The modiiied form of the invention illustrated in Fig. 2 is similar to that shown in Fig. 1 except that the polarizing voltage for the transducer 5 is derived from the anode I 9 of the amplifier tube l5, thus eliminating the auxiliary battery supply I0, the isolation resistor I l and the direct current blocking condenser 28 as illustrated in Fig. 1. The operation of this form of the invention will be understood from the description of the circuit arrangement of Fig. l.

A further modified form of the invention is illustrated in Fig. 3 wherein a three stage amplifier including the vacuum tubes i5, 38 and 32 is coupled to a polarized condenser type of transducer 5. In this arrangement the voltage at the anode 32 of the vacuum tube 5l in the last stage of the amplifier is used to polarize the transducer However, an auxiliary polarizing supply such as lli` could be used in a multi-stage amplifier.

- While the amplifier illustrated in Fig. 3 is of the A. C.-coupled type, it Will be understood that a D. C.I voltage amplifier could be used instead. In a multi-stage A. C'. coupled'amplifier, precaution must be taken to prevent positive feedback of any frequencies through the transducer sufficient to cause oscillation.

The present invention is characterized by the fact that: it is capable of presenting an extremely high impedance to the transducer, an impedance which is not limited even by stray capacitance and leakage resistance from leads; its sensitivity to electrostatic pickup is low; its sensitivity to internally generated noises is low; and it introduces very little distortion.

What I claim is:

l. In a system of the class described, a signal source, a three-terminal amplifier including an input terminal at signal potential different from ground, an output terminal at a signal potential difiierent from ground, and a common grounded terminal, one pole of said source being connected to said input terminal and the other pole thereof being connected to said output terminal to eiiect series negative feedback With respect to the source, and grounded electrostatic shielding effectively interposed between all parts of the conductive path between the input terminal and one source terminal, and the conductive path between the outptrterrinal-and the other source verfilmt ,e n t,

2; In` a system-grime eiass'wdes'eribedi al signer source having ai highinipedarce o'f-,a given value; a three terminal amplifier including arr input terminal, an output' terminal" andi a common grounded terminal; a load coupled"- to' said output terminal andto said common'terminal;` one pole of said source being connected to" said input terminal andthe other pole thereof being conneeted to said output terminal', neither pole having any direct connection to ground, V.said source being thereby coupled to' the amplifier to" effect substantiallyl 100%' series" negativejvoltage feedback thereto, and al groundedshield interposed between substantiallv vthe'entire' connection from one'pole of thes'ource totheinput terminal, and substantially the 'entire 'conne ction'from" the other pole of the's'oureetothe output'ytermiral;

3A. InA a' system'of theclassldesferibed, a ttvopole source of' electrical' signalV voltag'fev having ai given internal impedance,` a loadl having'a lower impedance, means for amplifyingthfefsigalivoltage with respectto ground presentat-o'ne pole of said source; means for couplingv said amplied signal'voltage to'said'load'; means for coupling the amplified signal voltag'e'to-` the" other pole of saidls'ource Oppositfeiphasetothat of said-first mentioned signalvoltag'e; andjmeans for diverting" to Yground yavvay froml thel'rst mentioned pole and from allcondeto'r's directlyf connected to saidpole and operating at--theu sanfiejsignall poten'tial= withy respect to' ground; substantially" Jail strayiield resultingY fromethe second: mentioned pole and -from`-ali conductors diretly*connected to saidseeond pole?.r` L

4; In asyste'in--oftheelassdescribed a tivopolel signal souree,-a load meansi for' amplifying the signal voltage Withf respectlto ground4 present at one pole of said souro'eQ-rneans for applying said amplied-signal to' s'aidlo'ad, means for'applying the amplifledsignallvltage to the other pole of said source iii oppositev` phasef'to'tlat of therst mentioned' signal vintagel whereby? anY extremely. high impedancecanlilectively be'presented to said source', and means-substantially eliminating strayi leal-rageA` between'zs'aid` poles by diverting to'grouiidl away' fromA the first nientioned pole and'fro'm all conductors fdirectly connected to said' polea-nd operatingi at the' same signai'poten'tial with'- respectto ground'j substantially allr stray' fields' resulting: from' the seorfd mentioned pole and fromk alll conductors' dire'etli connected to said second pole.` A

V5; InV arsystem of the' class describedatwo'- pole signal generating'rsource having anjinterjnal impedance' of a; given value; anampliierrpro'- vided'With' anr input cireuitihaving'ja' normal'input 'impe'danceand an output circuit, the 'circuits having` respectively aninputv terminalandA an output terminal and having anA effectively glrnindedfV terminal common-to saidaii'euit said amplier being coupled-to sai'dsource by coupling means including av conductiveY path; between the input terminal and` one" terminal 'ofv said` source and'another conductive path betweerfithe output terminal? and th other terminaloffsaid source to; amplifyl the: power' off the'f s'igria'l,- a'l grounded shield e''ectively interposed between all'A parts" of the conductive path between the input terminal and one source terminal, and the conductive path between the output terminal and the other source terminal; said coupling means, and shield electively multiplying the impedance presented to said source to a value greater thanthe normal input impedance of saidiamplier.

HOGUE.

Radio Engineering, ATeririan; B rded, p. 3773-2 published 1947 by McGraw-HL NL'Y.` 

